Located12 kilometers from My Tho City, Tien Giang Province, the World ofSnakes is a place for the animals to have a peaceful life without theimpact of man. There, tourists can see a lot of researched snakes which are extremely aggressive and even capable of spitting poison,and other snake-based medicines are produced to save lives. The farmcovers 12 hectares, including simulated wilderness areas, surrounded byditches for snakes as well as areas for other animals like sheep,ostriches, yellow tortoises, tigers, crocodiles and so on. During atrip to the World of Snakes, you will be informed about Dong Tam farm’shistory, offered information about how to treat snakebites anddemonstrated venom extraction and some of its uses.

Luckily,coming to this farm, you will have the chance to see how 500 snakes aretaken venom at a time. This venom will be used to process medicine andother uses.
Dong Tam guides will also give tourists anopportunity to explore the farm. If you are afraid of snakes, youshouldn’t get too close to cages, as there are many poisonous snakeslike copperheads, dendrophis which lie in branches, or snakes crawlingout of their holes. Here, you can take a lot of photograph of thecobras which are kept in an open pit. Normally, they will not harm youif you ignore. Yet, they will strike if they are once provoked. On theother hand though, the pythons are docile enough to be taken out oftheir cages and handled, but be warned that the larger ones are capableof strangling a human.

Atsome cages, the guide even pulls a snake out for visitors to takephotos and expounds about difference kinds of snakes. If you takenotice, you can also see that there were some snakes live in specialcages and they were put mice out for meals by the employers of thefarm. Yet, not all snakes are being raised for venom production; someof them will become meals for fellow creatures. Interestingly, the farmoffers products made from snakes such as snake medicinal wine for youto buy. The snake farm is operated by the Vietnamese military forprofit and is open to the public. The restaurant here includes cobra onthe menu and there's a shop where you can stock up on cobra antivenin.

Arepresentative of the farm said that Dong Tam saves around 500 livesannually, usually poor patients in the Mekong Delta who come to thefarm when their situations become critical.

“Wenever seen any gold shopkeepers come to the farm by luxury car,” hejoked. “But every person who comes here will be helped,” he added.

Soundinteresting, isn’t it? Let’s join a trip to Dong Tam snake by comingfrom HCMC, continue for 3km beyond the turn-off to My Tho and turn leftat the Dong Tam lunction (signposted). From the junction, follow theroad for 4km, turn right and continue for lion until you reach thesnake farm.